Burdwan Police and district officials on Sunday recovered 18 human skeletons and arrested four persons from a house in Nand Colony of Kalna area. “It is being investigated to see where the skeletons were brought from, and why. Cleaning materials like hydrogen peroxide have also been recovered,” Burdwan DM Anurag Srivastava told The Indian Express.

Of the four accused — identified as Rakhi Pal, Yamuna Pal, Mintu Dey, and Nakul Chowdhury — three are women. The accused allegedly used to steal corpses and strip the bodies down to skeletons using chemicals. The bones recovered allegedly include human skulls and several other skeletal parts.

The skeletons were allegedly sold by the accused to medical practitioners in various states across India.

“Prima facie the accused were involved in an illegal business of selling human skeletons to medical practitioners. The bones were hidden inside a secret chamber in the house,” said a police official.

According to sources, Nakul Chowdhury has been remanded to police custody for ten days. The other three have been remanded to 10-day jail custody.